This updated version of Kindle Unicode Fonts Hack works on all versions of Kindle software including the most recent 2.3 and installs on Kindle 2 US, Kindle 2 International and Kindle DX.

I’ve added more font combinations:

• GNU FreeFont – this hack uses GNU Free Fonts that come with Linux and are free to redistribute. All font styles are preserved (serif, sans-serif, mono-spaced, bold and italic) but these fonts only support Latin, Cyrillic characters and some others (click here for full coverage data). So if you are only interested in Russian books – this is the way to go. Otherwise this patch will do you little good. Here are download links:
  • Kindle 2 (serial number starts with B002) – update_ufh_gnufreefont_install-k2.bin
  • Kindle 2 International (serial number starts with B003) – update_ufh_gnufreefont_install-k2i.bin
  • Kindle DX (serial number starts with B004) – update_ufh_gnufreefont_install-kdx.bin

• GNU Free Fonts SansSerif (recommended for Cyrillic) - same fonts as before but SansSerif family is used instead of Serif. In my opinion it looks better. Bold and italic styles are preserved:
  • Kindle 2 (serial number starts with B002) – update_ufh_gnufreefont_sans_install-k2.bin
  • Kindle 2 International (serial number starts with B003) – update_ufh_gnufreefont_sans_install-k2i.bin
  • Kindle DX (serial number starts with B004) – update_ufh_gnufreefont_sans_install-kdx.bin

• Droid Fallback Fonts (recommened for Asian glyphs) - this hack uses open-source Droid fallback font that is part of Google Android platform. Unfortunately styles and typefaces are missing completely. You’ll only get regular Sans Serif. The upside is the broadest character support. It supports Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese and a bunch of other languages. This font also looks very good on the Kindle screen (in my opinion way better than native Kindle fonts). This is the patch I currently have installed on my Kindle 2. Here are download links:
  • Kindle 2 (serial number starts with B002) – update_ufh_droid_install-k2.bin
  • Kindle 2 International (serial number starts with B003) – update_ufh_droid_install-k2i.bin
  • Kindle DX (serial number starts with B004) – update_ufh_droid_install-kdx.bin

• Droid Fonts with Styles – Same fonts as above but all families and styles are there. However Asian characters are not supported:
  • Kindle 2 (serial number starts with B002) – update_ufh_droid_styles_install-k2.bin
  • Kindle 2 International (serial number starts with B003) – update_ufh_droid_styles_install-k2i.bin
  • Kindle DX (serial number starts with B004) – update_ufh_droid_install-kdx.bin

• Droid Fallback with Styles SansSerif – Same as above but Serif fonts are replaced with Sans Serif because I believe it is more readable on Kindle screen:
  • Kindle 2 (serial number starts with B002) – update_ufh_droid_styles_sans_install-k2.bin
  • Kindle 2 International (serial number starts with B003) – update_ufh_droid_styles_sans_install-k2i.bin
  • Kindle DX (serial number starts with B004) – update_ufh_droid_sans_install-kdx.bin

Visit the Kindle Unicode Fonts Hack page for detailed instructions.

I’ve create Unicode Font Hack that also works on Kindle 2 International. I’ve also reorganized the files to minimize download times. Each device/font combination can now be downloaded as separate file. That file would contain only update binaries. Source code for all binaries can be downloaded separately. I’ve updated the hack page accordingly. You can find instructions as well as more detailed information there.

I’ve made the following changes to the hack:

• Removed browser only hack since it didn’t add much value – if you still want it you’ll need to build it from the sources yourself.
• Changed the uninstaller so that it removes extra font files completely as some of you have requested this feature.
• Since droid hack uses the same font, rather than making multiple copies I’m using symlinks now so the hack uses less disk space on Kindle.

Here are installation instructions:

1. Download one of the following files:
   1. Droid fonts: this is an open-source font that comes from Android Google OS. This font looks quite nice and supports Asian characters. However it only comes in sans serif style:
      • Kindle 2 (software version 2.0.*) - update_ufh_droid_install-k2.bin
      • Kindle 2 International (software version 2.2.*) - update_ufh_droid_install-k2i.bin (you need to jailbreak you Kindle first – read on to find out how)
      • Kindle DX (software version 2.1.*) - update_ufh_droid_install-kdx.bin
   2. Liberation fonts. These fonts come from RedHat linux and are open-source. Personally I don’t find them as nice as droid. It doesn’t support Asian characters. However it does support all 3 font styles – serif, sans serif and mono-spaced.
      • Kindle 2 (software version 2.0.*) - update_ufh_liberation_install-k2.bin
      • Kindle 2 International (software version 2.2.*) - update_ufh_liberation_install-k2i.bin (you need to jailbreak you Kindle first – read on to find out how)
      • Kindle DX (software version 2.1.*) - update_ufh_liberation_install-kdx.bin
2. If you have international version of Kindle 2 you need to jailbreak it first:
   1. Connect your Kindle to PC via the USB cable.
   2. Download this file: update_freekindle-k2i.bin
   3. Copy it to the root directory of your Kindle.
   4. Press Home. Press Menu. Select Settings. Press Menu. Select Update Your Kindle. Select OK.
   5. The update WILL fail. This is expected. However from now on you will be able to install custom Kindle updates.
3. Connect your Kindle to PC via the USB cable.
4. Copy update package that corresponds to your device to to the root directory of your Kindle.
5. Press Home. Press Menu. Select Settings. Press Menu. Select Update Your Kindle. Select OK.
6. The update will install, Kindle will restart and when it does – new fonts are going to be in effect. Please not that for International Kindle it will take some time before the installation progress bar moves as font files are large and it takes a long time for Kindle to verify the update signature.

To uninstall:

1. Connect your Kindle to PC via the USB cable.
2. Download  and copy uninstall package that corresponds to your device to to the root directory of your Kindle.
   • Kindle 2 (software version 2.0.*) - update_ufh_uninstall-k2.bin
   • Kindle 2 International (software version 2.2.*) -update_ufh_uninstall-k2i.bin
   • Kindle DX (software version 2.1.*) -update_ufh_uninstall-kdx.bin
3. Press Home. Press Menu. Select Settings. Press Menu. Select Update Your Kindle. Select OK.
4. The update will install, Kindle will restart and when it does – old fonts will be used and there will be no trace of the hack in the Kindle file system. So official updates will install once again.

If you would like to customize the fonts – you can do so by downloading the hack sources and modifying them. I have to warn you that this is risky business though. It may be a good idea to install the antibrick hack before you proceed.

When I was first working on Unicode Font Hack for Kindle 2 I bricked mine by messing up the fonts configuration. This prevented Java GUI from starting up so I had to way to install an update that would reverse the change.

While this hack will not fix your already bricked Kindle it will give you a chance to unbrick yours in the future. All it does is it installs a startup script that would scan check system directory for exec.sh and execute commands that are in there. File is then renamed to exec.sh.done to avoid infinite executions. This will give you a chance to run some commands even if Java GUI doesn’t start for one reason or another. It will also give you ability to run commands on your Kindle without having to roll updates for every command, use serial console or USB networking hack.

Since this gives you the ability to run any commands on your Kindle this surely gives you the ability to irreversibly brick it as well. So if you don’t know your way around Linux I don’t recommend you install it at all.

That being said, the hack can be downloaded here: kindle_antibrick.zip

All you need to do is copy appropriate  (update_antibrick-k2.bin for Kindle 2, update_antibrick-kdx for Kindle DX and update_antibrick-k2i for Kindle International) file into root directory of Kindle USB drive just like any other hack. It will also copy small sample exec.sh into system directory. Upon successful installation this script will create a file antibrick-success.txt in the root folder.

If you are doing this on Kindle 2 international you need to jailbreak your Kindle first.

Since it doesn’t change any existing files it is not intrusive in regard to official Amazon updates and will not prevent them from being installed.

update_antibrick_remove-*.bin files remove the hack. Once again you should use the file that corresponds to your device version.

I’ve decided to publish this before I publish the updated Unicode Fonts hack so that people who would want to modify the hack may install this first.

FedEx has just delivered my Kindle 2 International. On the exterior it looks exactly the same as Kindle 2 with US wireless. However there seem to be some changes in the software. First of all the device reports software version to be 2.2 (375490138). What is interesting is that this version can’t be found on Amazon Kindle source code web-page.

Kindle 2 International 2.2

Poking around the settings and easter eggs I found that 411 and 611 pages look different.

I’ve also found a new hidden setting: if you type 311 while on the settings page you will be able to manually switch wireless networks just like on any other GSM phone.

Kindle 2 International Choosing GSM network

Kindle 2 International seems to have several new screensaver images.

I can confirm that despite the change in software number the fonts are still not Unicode. Unicode font hack for US Kindle 2 doesn’t install on the international version. At first it wouldn’t even recognize the update. I’ve played around with Igor’s script and was able to tweak it to produce .BIN files that are recognized as updates by Kindle. However these updates still fail during the installation. Right now I’m trying to figure out why that is and how to fix it. If anyone would like to beat me to it – the updated version of Igor’s script can be downloaded here: kindle_update_tool. You’ll need to have Python installed in order to run it. To build update packages for Kindle 2.2 you need to use -k4 switch. Good luck! Let me know if you figure it out.

Kindle Copy-Paste

As I was playing around with my Kindle DX, I’ve found an undocumented feature that can be used in a couple of ways. I checked and it also works in Kindle 2. It’s possible that it is known in the Kindle community or even documented but I wasn’t aware of it until I discovered it by accident the same way as I’ve found Kindle calculator easter egg.

If you start selecting text in Kindle book or document with 5-way controller but instead of pressing the controller the second time to highlight the selection press any alphanumeric key or space bar, the highlighted text would get copied into the search box as shown on picture.

From here you can go two ways:

• either use this text as a search query against current book/document, all of your kindle content, Kindle Store, Google, Wikipedia or default dictionary (to change search scope tilt 5-way controller left or right)
• or select the rightmost search button “note” that would paste text from a search box to a newly created note. You can then edit the note text as you see fit. The note will be anchored to the location where you have finished your selection.

I hope you will find this tip useful.

Jesse Vincent who is responsible for a number of Kindle hacks in the past (such as Savory and tethering Kindle 2) managed to get Ubuntu Linux running on the Kindle 2.  Since one branch of the popular distro is ported to run on the ARM architecture that Kindle is based on, it seems like it was should have been possible to run a generic Linux version on the device. Jesse proved it to be true. He has actually been at it for quite a while, having run xdaliclock on the Kindle months ago. It seems that recently he was able make most of the Kindle hardware (like 5-way controller) work.

Hypothetically, there is no limit to what other software could be installed.  It’s even plausible that at some point in the future something like this could become more widespread.  If someone likes the Kindle but not Amazon’s platform, they could install some community supported Kindle OS that was more to their liking.  People already jailbreak iPhones; this could be the Kindle equivalent.

from iKindle3GS.EU

iReaderReview reports interesting piece of news. Someone has started a project to hack the Kindle for use with European wireless networks.  It looks like they’ve already managed to switch the modem and add a SIM card, but haven’t yet figured out the software end of the mod.

If you want to make your Kindle’s hardware compatible with European networks, the process seems fairly straightforward.  Just take the device apart, add the above mentioned pieces to the puzzle, and zip it back up.  But be warned: you won’t actually be able to use wireless until someone releases the requisite software hack.

A fun fact from the project: the hardware is designed in a way that adding your own SIM card is ridiculously easy.  Some would even argue that the Kindle was actually meant to be modded for Europe.  I find it unlikely that Amazon had hackers in mind, but they probably did design the device with Europe somewhat in mind.  Once the Kindle does hit Europe, the hardware will be more or less ready to go without any real changes in the manufacturing process.

To view ePub of PDF files on your Amazon Kindle normally you would need to use Amazon email conversion service (either free of $0.10 per document) or you could convert documents on your PC using Mobipocket Creator. Well, not anymore…

Jesse from “Massively Parallel Procrastination” blog has created a Savory hack that adds almost native support for these formats to your Amazon Kindle. Installing this hack does two things:

1. It becomes possible to download PDF and ePub files from Kindle browser (normally all unsupported file-types are blocked)
2. One PDF or ePub file is dropped into /documents folder background conversion process is started automatically and after some time a converted document appears in it’s place.

I installed and tested it and it took just under 2 minutes to convert project Gutenberg version of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. There were some formatting flaws but overall book converted well.

This hack is fully reversible. There is an uninstaller provided. However it should be noted that because of the way uninstaller currently works, if you have other hacks installed (like unicode hack or screensaver hack) it can potentially partially revert these as well if they were installed after Savory. So for now it’s safer to uninstall in the reverse order of how you installed hacks.

As with all other Kindle hacks it should be used with care because although tested by many people (myself included) it can potentially brick your device. Also having this hack installed will prevent official Amazon updates from installing so you’ll need to uninstall it and the install Amazon update manually.

This makes Kindle even more PC-independent than it was to begin with. And this is good. Personally I believe that PC-independent gadgets are the way of the future. Just look at how successful iPhone is (I only need to tether mine to upload new audiobooks and flash new firmware). This is because most people don’t wan’t anymore just to use computers for the sake of using computers but to get done things they need done in their everyday lives and the simpler – the better.

Patches were tested by several volunteers and all results were positive. The patch works and doesn’t cause any problems. You can now read books on your Amazon Kindle 2 in Russian, Chinese, Japanese and probably number of other languages.

Currently I’m releasing hack with two different fonts: Liberation that comes from RedHat Linux and Droid that comes from Google Android project. Both fonts are open-source and they are the best ones I could find that suit the needs of this hack. Finding good fonts was much harder than creating the hack itself.

Instructions and download links can be found here. Please-please-please-please-please do be very-very-very-very-very careful if you decide to experiment with adding your own fonts to the hack. If you find good free or reasonably priced fonts that work – please let me know – I’ll test them and make more versions of the hack available here and give you proper credit. Please spread the word about this hack as it will increase chances of someone finding better fonts that can be used with it.

Here are some screenshots of what Kindle 2 with hacked fonts looks like:

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I would like to thank John, Ted and some other folks for helping me test this patch. Another big thank you goes to Igor who created the python script that creates Kindle 2 update packages.

I’ll now shift my attention to figuring out creating custom recovery mode updates. Once this is done – I’ll have much more freedom in messing with fonts and other settings without fear of bricking my Kindle 2.

Update: Testing is completed. You can download release version of the hack here: Kindle Fonts Hack.

After quite a bit of tweaking I was able to create a patch that replaces default Kindle 2 fonts with ones that support wider range of Unicode characters. I was able to test it on Cyrillic texts in particular. I believe that any characters can be displayed – it’s just a matter of picking correct TTF fonts. The patch works in books and in web-browser as you can see from the screenshots. Patch is also fully reversible. I’ve tried installing and removing it several times and my Kindle is working fine.

I plan to make this patch available here on this website for anyone to download. However before I do so I would like to have it properly tested by volunteers. If you would like to be on the front-line of Kindle hacking – drop a comment here and I’ll email you the patch and the instructions. Volunteers will be honorably mentioned in the post containing the final patch. Although I’ve tested this patch to the best of my abilities and as you can see from the screenshots – it works, I can’t guarantee anything and if your device ends up being bricked – I’ll try my best to advise you on fixing it but in no way I should be held responsible – responsibility is all yours. So again – if you are interested – drop a comment on this post and I’ll email you.

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Engadget reports that undisclosed law firm on behalf of Amazon.com sent cease and desist letter to MobileRead.com admins demanding pages that host instructions on how to use Python script that allows you to read legally purchased DRM protected eBooks in MobiPocket format on Kindle and Kindle 2.

My personal opinion is that it’s not as simple as Engadget and TechDirt would like to portray it. For one, Engadget’s statement that the script “script, which can’t actually be used to break Kindle DRM” is misleading. I will not elaborate why. If you research the matter yourself, you may find out what I mean. I don’t want to take sides on this particular issue, I just want to point out that there’s more to it than meets the eye or what’s written in mainstream news.

While I am personally a big supporter of open information market where content creators and distributors are fairly compensated for their work and law-abiding users are not limited by crippling DRM systems that bind them to specific hardware. But before this can happen market should get big enough. Otherwise it may collapse because of extreme competition. Amazon is currently the biggest driver or eBook market growth. Cut their profits, their eBook business may collapse and there will be no market at all. Recent release of Kindle application for iPhone and iPodTouch is a step in the right direction towards more open information market. Because it allows usage of purchased digital content to be freely used across two different software and hardware platforms. Hopefully soon more steps like this will follow.

For people who wanted to replace author pictures in Kindle 2 Screensaver with any pictures of their own there is now a solution. clarknova from MobileRead Forums created a custom update that allows you to replace Amazon-supplied pictures that are shown when Kindle 2 goes to sleep with any pictures of your own.

Before you continue with instructions below, please understand that you are doing it at your own risk and this can potentially void your warranty. On the bright side, the update seems small, straightforward and reversable and several people (myself included – see pictures below) have successfully applied it to their devices.

Important thing to remember is that this update changes some configuration files. Official Amazon updates verify file checksums before installing. So while you have this hack installed updates that would try to change the same file will fail. Solution is to reverse this hack (instructions below), apply Amazon update and then reapply the hack.

Before proceeding you may want to take a look at “Updating Kindle Software Post” and make sure that you have the most recent software on your Kindle.

To enable custom screensavers:

1. Download kindle_screensaver_hack-0.3.zip. This seems to the latest version now and I’ll try to keep this post updated with more versions as they become available.
2. Unpack it.
3. Connect your Kindle to your PC via USB. Go to the Kindle drive (usually K:\)
4. If you don’t see system folder, you need to configure Windows to show hidden files and folders. Otherwise go the next step.
5. Go to the \system folder and create screen_saver subfolder in it.
6. Copy all of the images you want your screensaver to randomly cycle tough. Both PNG and JPEG formats are OK. While Kindle will resize images it’s best to resize them to 600×800 beforehand. Definitely don’t try putting 10 megapixel photos from your camera there as screensaver would then take long time to load and image will not display right. Good freeware tool to edit images is Paint.NET
7. Copy Update_kindle2_user_screen_savers.bin that you’ve unpacked in step 2 to the root directory of your Kindle 2.
8. Unplug the USB cable.
9. Press “Menu”, select “Settings”, press “Menu”, select “Update Your Kindle”.
10. It normally should take under a minute to update and reboot your Kindle. And you’re done!

If you did everything right you should see the following in at the bottom of your settings screen.

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To revert to standard screensavers:

1. Connect your Kindle to your PC via USB. Go to the Kindle drive (usually K:\)
2. Copy Update_kindle2_restore_default_screen_savers.bin to the root directory of your Kindle 2.
3. Unplug the USB cable.
4. Press “Menu”, select “Settings”, press “Menu”, select “Update Your Kindle”.
5. It normally should take under a minute to update and reboot your Kindle. And you’re done!
6. If you want to disable custom screensavers for good rather than temporarily disable the hack to install Amazon Update, you may want to delete the \system\screen_saver directory you’ve created before. Be extra careful not to delete anything else in the \system directory!

Wikimedia.org may be a good place to stock up on nice copyright-free images.

If you try this hack, please take a minute to post your experience in the comments as I”m sure most people who read this post will be interested in them.

After my last post about custom Kindle firmwares possibly making appearance soon, I received several emails with questions on how official firmware updates should be applied. Indeed there is very little information in the User’s Manual on how to update the Kindle software.

Normally Kindle 2 would automatically download appropriate software updates if it is connected to the WhisperNet and automatically intall it when Kindle goes into sleep mode. Update installation will be followed by a reboot.

If you are don’t have Sprint EVDO coverage and therefore don’t have access to WhisperNet update can be done manually by following these steps:

1. Download appropriate update file from Amazon.com. Kindle 1 updates should be downloaded from http://www.amazon.com/update_kindle.bin. Kindle 2 users should download from http://www.amazon.com/update_kindle2.bin. It’s very important not to mix these files as you can possibly brick your Kindle by installing the wrong update.
2. Connect your Kindle to your PC via USB cable.
3. Once Kindle USB drive is mounted copy the downloaded file to the root folder of it.
4. Unmount the drive using Safely remove installed hardware icon in the system tray (next to the clock, volume control icon etc)
5. Disconnect Kindle from the PC.
6. Go to the Home Screen, press Menu and select settings and then select “Update Your Kindle”. If your Kindle is already updated the menu item will be gray and you will not be able to select it.
7. Once update is installed your Kindle will reboot.

Please be extremely careful when following these instructions and even then do it at your own risk!

It looks like Jesse Vincent has found a way to re-flash Kindle 2 with custom hand-made firmwares. At the moment he’s not uncovering any details of the process. Hopefully, he or somebody else would soon come up with firmware that would support full range of Unicode international characters to enable proper display of Asian, Cyrillic and other characters on web-pages and in downloaded eBooks and documents.

It took Microsoft Zune more than a year to put a Unicode font in the firmware (even considering that Zune is a Windows Mobile-based device, and Windows Mobile had proper Unicode support for ages). This is why I don’t believe we would see Unicode support in official firmware updates from Amazon and Kindle community would be better off helping themselves.